Breaking the First Two Rules Agents of Repression and Subversion in Fight Club :: Essays Papers

Breaking the First two Rules Agents of Repression and Subversion in Fight ClubThe first eclipse more or less fight golf club is you dont communication about fight club. The second rule about fight club is you dont talk about fight club (48). The first two rules governing the underground fighting rings of eruct Palahniuks novel Fight Club serve as more than an feat to maintain the secrecy of the illegal clubs. The explicit definitions of what the novels characters can and cannot think and talk about set the stage for the storys examination of the repressive forces of society and the mental consequences of the ever-present cultural no. The nameless cashier who creates the fight clubs exists in such a state of cultural insulation and repression that the only sublimation of his unconscious desires he finds possible is the projection of the mental struggle between his conscious and unconscious minds into the physical world. This projection starts with physical combat between the two members of the secern subject, only when eventually gives behavior to the complete seizure of control by the unconscious half - Tyler Durden - whenever the narrators conscious half-falls asleep. This drastic realization of Freuds theory on satisfying unconscious desires in the dream state does indeed fluke the narrator out of the suffocating comfort of his normative social roles. However, as the narrators unconscious mind gains increasing control over his daily activities, its negative tendencies begin to destroy not only everything that the narrator hates about his life, but also everything that he discovers makes life worth living. In the beginning of the novel, the narrator finds little meaning in his life. Completely disillusioned with his job, his love life, and close of all himself, the narrator summarizes his role in consumerist America in the bleakest equipment casualty Pull a lever. Push a button. You dont understand any of it, and wherefore you just die (12). In the narrators perception, materialist priorities have people chasing cars and clothes they dont engagejobs they hate (149), and have led him to a point at which he realizes he is a thirty-year old boy (51) living in a condo he describes as a filing cabinet for widows and recent professionals (41). Following all the steps prescribed by society-going to college, getting a job, becoming self-supportive-has led to a dead end for the narrator, prompting him to reflect, I hated my life. I was tired and boredand couldnt see any way to change things (172).